Central bankers under fire

Out of bounds

Leszek Balcerowicz, an icon of reform, is under attack

CENTRAL bankers usually like to stay out of the limelight. This week was an exception. In Russia, the central bank's deputy chairman, Andrei Kozlov, was shot dead in Moscow. He had been closing down dodgy banks thought to be involved in money laundering. Less dramatically, the governor of Poland's central bank, Leszek Balcerowicz, was under fire from enemies in Warsaw.

Mr Balcerowicz is widely seen as the father of Poland's economic success. As finance minister in the 1990s, he helped to transform a ruined state-directed economy into a thriving capitalist one. But critics say that, under his stewardship at both the finance ministry and now at the central bank, millions of Poles have lost savings and jobs. He has followed a needlessly harsh monetary policy, and allowed commercial banks to be sold to foreigners. As a member of the Communist Party until 1981, Mr Balcerowicz is distrusted by the former dissidents who now run the country.

His term runs out early next year. But he faces months of difficulty until then. The government has just created a single financial regulator, not because it is a desirable idea but to weaken the central bank. Outsiders have leapt to defend Mr Balcerowicz's independence, including the European Central Bank. But that counts for little with the government's prickly parliamentary deputies, who have set up a committee to investigate banking policy since 1989.

Members of the committee accuse Mr Balcerowicz of many sins. One is backing the merger of two banks owned by Italy's UniCredit earlier this year. That was contested by the government but backed by the European competition commissioner. Unicredit came to terms with the government, but Mr Balcerowicz has not been forgiven for his lack of economic patriotism. He has been summoned by the committee, but declines to appear, at least until a court decision on its constitutionality later this month.

The committee has also questioned Mr Balcerowicz's wife, Ewa, who heads CASE, a prominent Warsaw think-tank. Members hint that her husband may have abused his position to channel funds her way. Both he and she deny claims of a conflict of interest.

Most of the government's sleaze-busting has been in the shadowy world of intelligence, where outsiders give the government the benefit of the doubt. But attacking Mr Balcerowicz looks unwise. For all his faults, he represents a predictable, prosperous and law-abiding Poland. Just now that is an image that needs polishing, not denting.